Tonga most de­pen­dent in Pa­cific on re­mit­tances

Tonga is the Pa­cific coun­try most de­pen­dent on re­mit­tances. In re­cent World Bank data shows re­mit­tances made up nearly 33 per cent of Tonga’s GDP in 2015. This ranked it fourth in the world in terms of re­liance on re­mit­tances. 18 per cent of Samoa’s GDP comes from re­mit­tances and 14 per cent for the Mar­shall Is­lands. Ra­dio Tonga re­ports that about 12,000 Ton­gans are now work­ing un­der Aus­tralia’s Sea­sonal Worker Pro­gramme and New Zealand Recog­nised Sea­sonal Em­ployer Scheme. RNZI